THE STAPLE OF NEWS.
The Staple of News. By Ben Jenson. Edited by De Winter. " Yale Studies in English," XXVILL (H. Holt and Co., New York. $2.)—Yale University has been distinguishing itself of late in the field of Jonsonian scholarship. Besides the present work, there have appeared Miss Woodbridge's " Studies in Jonson's Comedy," Mr. Hathaway's edition of "The Alchemist," Mr. Aldin's " Bartholomew Fair," and Mr. Mallory's "Poetaster." All this is so much to the good, for the amount of work that remains to be done on the plays of the laborious poet whom Mr. Swinburne has named the greatest of the giants is sufficient to give pause to the most hardy. Consequently, while we are waiting for the monumental edition of Ben's works promised by the University Press of Oxford—and we shall presumably have to wait some time —we shall welcome whatever comes to us from Yale or Louvain. The edition of The Staple of News before us is no botched-up affair such as one sometimes meets with in this country in a pretty leather binding (sixpence extra), but a serious work, extending to well over three hundred octavo pages. Such amplitude of treatment is imperatively demanded by the writer whose fame among the general is that of an elegant lyrist, and who in reality is one of the most weighty, and at whiles indeed ponderous, artists who ever uttered their profoundest observations on the world in dramatic form. The introduction is interesting, especially the editor's thesis, which is ably maintained, of the Jonsonian authorship, or perhaps rather part-authorship, of "The London Prodigal," a suggestion we do not remember to have met with elsewhere. The least satisfactory part of the work is that devoted to bibliography, which contains, as usual, a number of inaccuracies. We have also noticed some errors in the dates assigned to the King's company in the notes. Tho "I. B." of the title-page, by the way, is John Beale, not Benson, as is proved by the device.
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